The Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction: 2024 Edition

By Ed Hulse

The top-selling, best-reviewed title in Murania Press history is now available in a newly revised and expanded 2024 edition! With nearly 3000 copies in print, sold in 23 countries, The Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction has been acclaimed one of the foremost (the foremost, in the opinion of some) reference books covering the subject.

During the 20th century’s first half, millions of Americans flocked to newsstands every month in search of thrills provided by all-fiction magazines printed on cheap pulp paper. These periodicals introduced and popularized such famous characters as Tarzan, Zorro, Sam Spade, Buck Rogers, Doc Savage, Hopalong Cassidy, and Conan the Barbarian, to name just a few. The producers of pulp fiction churned out their vigorous and occasionally outré stories at a feverish pace, generally for a mere penny per word. Some eventually graduated from the pulps to become world-famous, best-selling authors—among them Edgar Rice Burroughs, Max Brand, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ray Bradbury, Louis L’Amour, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.

Often derided in their own time, the “rough paper” magazines had an incalculable effect on American pop culture. They gave birth to modern science fiction and the hardboiled detective story, but also to plot devices, character types, and storytelling innovations that live on in today’s most popular novels, movies, and TV shows.

Illustrated with 750 magazine covers and original paintings, The Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction presents a complete and lively history of this unique literary form, covering genres individually and identifying key titles, authors, and stories. It also offers advice on collecting the vintage magazines and directs readers to recently published reprints of classic pulp.

SORRY, NO INTERNATIONAL SALES OF THIS BOOK. AVAILABLE OVERSEAS FROM AMAZON.